


Just a Slob Like One of Us

by themunak



Category: Assassin's Creed, Okami
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-17
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-02 02:02:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themunak/pseuds/themunak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Techniques are not the only things the Assassins hand down to future generations. It's entirely possible to inherit a stalker as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Altaïr

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at Tumblr.

It starts with Altaïr.

Nobody realizes when a wolf steals into the city and makes itself at home. Nobody knows just how it has managed to elude the guards, themselves trained Assassins, when its coat is pure white and sure to stand out in the earthy browns and greens of the Syrian city, or when its body is nearly as large as an adult donkey in its prime.

Nobody notices until a novice playing truant finds it sunning itself on the flagstones of the fortress garden.

Naturally, its discovery sends the whole guild into a panic. The older, more experienced Assassins have their blades at the ready should the animal decide that they will be a good meal while they attempt to chase it away from their city, while the novices stand on their toes and crane their necks just to get a good look at the unnaturally large beast.

Any other animal should have been threatened by the huge number of humans surrounding it and making such a ruckus. However, the wolf opens one golden eye, looks at the men as if to say "you're blocking out my sun", and and closes it again.

Needless to say, the Assassins are stumped. They cant kill some animal that doesn't attack first, unless it's for useful purposes. They cant chase it out, with the way it ignores their attempts to startle it. They cant forcibly move it either, as any attempt to touch it could make it decide to harm them, and with its bulk, simply being bowled over can possibly crush them.

It's only when the Grand Master and his family decide to investigate does the beast stand, and not how everyone expects.

It barks, as if greeting old friends, and trots like a domesticated dog over to the Grand Master's wife. It vocally begs for attention with whining, and Maria, with far more nerve than anyone present at the courtyard can claim to have, decides to indulge it with a bit of affection. The beast practically melts into a satisfied puddle of fur on her lap, tail thumping loudly on the stones as it very obviously basks in her amused ministrations.

When she encourages her son to touch the wolf's fur as well, Altaïr is torn between being shocked and having a heart attack. When it demands the same from Altaïr, he hesitates before running his fingers through the surprisingly soft coat, and the wolf's lips turn up into a grin.

The Assassins decide to leave it alone after that, though more wary than accepting. Undeterred, the wolf quickly becomes a familiar sight at several areas of the fortress. Several novices swear up and down that it watches them train out in the courtyard like one of the Masters, judging their movements as if it could understand what they were doing. Sometimes, it can be seen dragging pillows to the middle of the garden to lie there for hours. Other times, it trots alongside the sentries and decides to annoy them by bumping into their legs and pulling faces that they attempt to ignore.

Altaïr listens to the complaints of the sentries with half an ear and an internal smirk. Despite them sounding so afraid of the thing, the Grand Master knows better than to put any real stock into their stories of the animal being so fearsome and monstrous. More than once, if he's early, he'll return to his and Maria's room to find the wolf gamboling with Darim, the toddler screaming in delight as his fat legs try to catch up with it while Maria laughes. If not, then he'll see the animal acting as a warm pillow for his wife and son, so he tolerates it taking up a huge amount of space on his bed.

Unless it rolls over him while he sleeps.

Which has happened more than once.

Much to Malik's amusement when he complains of the crick in his neck the following morning.

Malik too has gotten attached to the creature, Altaïr can tell. More than once they have come across it within Malik's study, sitting at his desk and poring over the various maps and drawings that litter it, as if it's actually intelligent enough to understand all those complicated lines (Altaïr doesn't doubt it, really), and while Malik always complains about possibly getting large, messy paw prints everywhere (which the wolf never leaves) he does so without heat. In fact, after much grumbling about wild beasts in the castle, Malik still allows it to stay within his rooms as he works and even sets it to work by fetching and delivering letters and books around Masyaf.

Over the months, it's become a fixture within the Assassins' fortress. The children and novices give it a lot of love and attention during breaks, and it provides a good source of entertainment during meals with the way it moves from person to person (or "victims", as several of the older Assassins like to joke amongst themselves) to loudly demand for food in the form of beans, vegetables and fruit (the complete lack of meat in its diet never fails to shock).

Rauf has taken to using it during training sessions after seeing just how fast it runs, and has it chase down any novice who attempts at truancy, or the slow runners and easily exhausted youngsters during exercises. Naturally, this results in a lot of laughter from the accomplished Assassins, and bets on which poor child will be the next victim of the yapping animal.

(Incidentally, during training sessions by the river, the wolf always stares at the river with something akin to displeasure in its expressive eyes, and Altaïr always feels a surge of sympathy for the beast that seems to hate the water as much as he.)

During the spring, which has surprised everyone in the city, the wolf sits with the horses in the stables despite horses preferring to birth their young in solitude, and even assisted in the foaling process by barking loudly and nudging the mares with its nose. Altaïr's heard a novice say to his friend that it was shouting encouragements, and while it's basically ridiculous, he has to give the idea some merit.

However, the decision to allow the wolf to stay within Masyaf for as long as it wants is cemented by the fact that it glows white. Not a solid grey like every other being in this world, not a golden hue like marked targets, not red like enemies of the Creed, nor even blue like an ally. It is _white_ , as if the color of its coat is bleeding into his second sight. This means it is either a source of information, or a safe haven. Of course, the first can be disregarded, as it doesn't talk-- not in the language of humans, at the very least. Altaïr is more willing to believe it's a protector instead, and a rather unusual one at that.

But what makes him curious about the animal are the changes in its appearance while he observes it in his world of grey. Lines of crimson make intricate, swirling patterns throughout its body and head, and a heavy amount of black tips its tail. He's wary at first by these red swirls, but they're nothing compared to what the animal has on its back. A large disc turns lazily, suspended in the air, and flames in the colors of the rainbow seem to come out of it. It's framed by something he cant even describe accurately-- like a mane of fur, except long and moves as if wind constantly blows through it.

Time and time again, Altaïr has tried to sketch the unusual appearance of the wolf for his codex, but he doesn't think he can ever fully capture the animal on paper, if it indeed is an animal.

One day the wolf comes into his study, which is a first. Of all the places that it has entered, it seems to avoid Altaïr's room the most despite its rapport with him. Altaïr turns on his chair to invite the animal in, but stops once he sees its black lips turned down in an uncharacteristic frown.

All it takes is one long look of the wolf to the Apple and the accursed orb starts glowing-- and then he truly understands.

It's here for the Apple. It's always been here for the Apple. Why it's only decided to approach the orb is beyond him, but he now knows that Masyaf's guest is not here to make a home for itself, but to interact with the _Apple_.

Altaïr's hand reaches for the Apple, to use it and get rid of the animal, but it is suddenly there, one large, heavy paw gently but firmly pinning his hand to the table, and bright gold eyes staring at the Grand Master's own.

The wolf doesn't speak (Altaïr berates himself for expecting it to finally open its jaws and use human speech) but instead shakes its head at him, as if saying that it's not to be feared. It then pushes the Apple to the ground and rolls it into a corner, where it shoves shelves and chests and whatnot in front of it, effectively barring Altaïr from getting to it unless he's prepared to spend long hours nudging them aside just to reach his prize, as he is not as strong as the beast apparently is.

He tells the wolf as much, and it only sneers at him.

Maybe, he thinks, he can go a few days without touching that infernal thing.

For the rest of the week, the wolf remains at his side as if to make sure he does not attempt to pull the Apple out, but ten nights later, it disappears. Darim is inconsolable, and the novices are downcast. Some are saying that their beloved wild pet may have fallen off the cliffs and died, others say it must have moved on to terrorize some other city.

Everyone prefers the latter.

Days after it leaves the city, Altaïr manages to retrieve the Apple and return his study to its proper order, but as he runs his fingers over its cool shell, he realizes that since the wolf first appeared in the castle, he has been spending more time away from the orb, and more time with his family and friends, and that the Order's spirits are at a high that they have not been since the day of Al Mualim's treachery.

He holds off on using the thing for the day and comes back a week later. His first question for the Apple is _who was that beast?_

The Apple has only one image for him, the sun.


	2. Ezio

Ezio is the next in line to receive some unusual attentions.

The first time he sees it, he's just moved into Monteriggioni with his mother and sister, and is black and blue from all the training with his uncle's _mercenari_. He's young, bitter and so full of revenge that he wants the blood of his family's enemies _now_ , despite Mario's pleas to stay and wait.

He is so full of thoughts, sitting against the stone wall behind the villa, that he doesn't realize something gigantic and white is approaching until it falls onto his lap in a mess of fur, limbs and heat. He yelps and attempts to stand to dislodge whatever has hit him so suddenly, but finds that he cant move because it's heavier and more solid than a crate of paintings from Leonardo, or even a human body.

And it's laughing at him with huffing breaths.

Ezio looks down to see just what has made itself comfortable on his lap, and finds a dog. A snow white dog that really shouldn't be of that size. And yet here it is, sitting on him like it practically owns him, and doesn't seem the least bit inclined to leave.

Mario didn't say that he has a pet, but he wont put it past the old man to have a gigantic animal. What has he been feeding this thing anyway? Cows? Horses?

The dog nudges at his hand with its head, and he rubs at its ears obligingly. He may have heard a sigh of pleasure, but dismisses it. Animals cant sigh.

... Then again, animals should not be able to laugh. Maybe it's something it has managed to pick up.

"Uncle has trained you well, hasn't he, puppy?" Ezio murmurs into the dog's ear, and it responds by nipping at his ear. "Or maybe you are just that intelligent, _si?_ "

The sounds of the mercenaries' voices carry before the dog can make any sort of response, and they're looking for Ezio. The boy groans loudly, still feeling the soreness of his muscles and pending bruises and wanting to stay longer with the dog and its warm fur. But instead, the dog clambers off of him and bats its paw at his shoulder, as if telling him to move.

Ezio complains, but the dog narrows its eyes at him, completely without sympathy for his plight.

"Bah! Just like Uncle, but less forgiving!" he cries without heat. The animal just laughs at him till he sends it a frown and moves to answer his uncle's men.

He looks back, and for a moment he thinks he sees the dog jump over the wall, but that's complete madness. He puts the thought out of his mind.

\----------

The next time Ezio sees the white beast is on _Isola Tiberina_ , sporting with some of his novices who are laughing and yelling. At first, he doesn't recognize the animal, until it spots him returning from his mission and moves to greet him like its master, barking and wagging its tail with a smile on its lips. It loudly demands for affection and he gives it, albeit hesitatingly.

Then he remembers that huge animal that sat with ( _on_ ) him for a day at the Auditore villa and listened to him complain. The Mentor smiles as he realizes that it's managed to survive all those years.

Apparently, he'd been mistaken when he'd called it his uncle's pet.

"Did anyone see how it arrived, or who brought it here?" he asks the room at large.

"No sir," says one novice. "It was already in the main hall when we woke."

"It was looking at the guild's ranking board, as if it could read," one of the female novices adds, her friends giggling along with her. Ezio catches the dog shooting her a smirk, and so do they, which makes them titter even harder.

"What shall we do with you then, eh, _bella_?" he asks the dog as he taps it on the nose. In reply, it wrinkles its nose and snorts at him, before leaving him with a huff to sit with the girls and is immediately showered with attention.

"Aw _Mentore_ , can we not keep it?" asks one of the girls, her big eyes looking up at him, pleading.

The other novices chime in one by one, until the whole of the main hall is ringing with pleas of keeping the huge beast like a family pet. Ezio knows he should say no and send the animal on its way, but if he declines, his recruits will hate him forever. The dog is definitely friendly with the way it interacts with the humans around it, but it will still be another mouth to feed without receiving anything in turn, unless they can somehow train it to be a guard dog.

Ezio doubts it will be an easy venture, considering it's managed to survive on its own for decades (how is it still even alive?).

He looks over the crowd of novices and higher Assassins to see Machiavelli at the entrance. The man has no words for him, but instead turns to leave, signaling that Ezio is no doubt alone when deciding the animal's fate. Bastard.

With the tide against him, Ezio has no choice but to relent, and the dog, now dubbed Neve for its snow white coat, quickly shows just who exactly is the master of Tiber, and it is not Ezio. While Ezio finds no strange smells or deposits around the headquarters as wild beasts are wont to do, he's caught the dog either rolling or napping on almost every flat surface that can accommodate its bulk-- even his own bed, the mutt.

With all the places that it goes, he can only be glad he's received no reports of a litter of snowy pups being reared somewhere in the hideout, but he thinks that the girls would love it if they suddenly find themselves the foster parents of tiny versions of Neve. The accursed dog has after never failed to disappoint its followers, most especially the females of the guild.

Sometimes, Ezio and the other males think Neve is around only to entertain the girls.

The dog is also known for occasionally accompanying Assassins on their own missions. More than once, they return with stories of how Neve did this or did that, how it managed to kick someone around the head with a hind leg, or how it manages to bowl through hordes of soldiers like they are nothing. These stories Ezio finds hard to believe, because in the hideout, the dog is lazier than a cat in the sun.

Every so often, Bartolomeo arrives with it in tow, demanding that it be put on a leash because of how it keeps bowling his men over during sparring sessions. However, during Ezio's visits to see how it's managed to even enter the fortified camp of the _mercenari_ , Pantasilea says that she and the men rather like having the dog around.

A lot of times, while visiting his mother and sister at the brothel, he finds courtesans spoiling it with belly rubs and copious amount of food. If it notices him underneath all the attention, then it smiles at him like he should be extremely jealous of its good fortune (and he _is_ jealous of the _bastardo_ ).

La Volpe has taken to teasing him about the Order's new pet, to which Ezio replies that the animal is not a pet but a Templar in a fur coat looking to take over the guild when they least expect it.

Of course, he doesn't think it's actually a Templar.

\----------

One night, it steals into his room like a wraith, and startled awake, Ezio uses his other sight on instinct. What he sees, he's not ready for.

Other animals in his sight show as a solid, boring grey, but Neve shines white, with dark red lines curls around its body and face, like a mask and designs on armor, and Ezio traces them curiously. Further along the dog's body, his fingers brush against a disc floating serenely just above its back. The disc spits bright orange flames that are sure to be hot and he thinks they will harm him, but they only feel _warm_ , like the touch of a lover or a stone that has been under the sun.

They disappear when he returns to normal vision, and it's as if he can no longer touch the disc, but his mind still remembers everything.

He finds the dog's appearance familiar, and yet... And yet he has difficulty remembering. Surely someone who has seen this before will not forget so easily. It's not like what he's seen in the Vault, no, but something else entirely.

Ezio carries a crude sketch of Neve's strange armament everywhere with him after that night, hoping to find something that might jog his memory.

Leonardo takes notice of the scrap during one of their meetings, and immediately gives him his answer-- Altaïr's codex pages. They may be lost to the Assassins forever, but Leonardo remembers them all down to the last detail. His old friend tells him of the Assassin's rough sketch of "the animal that looks not like an animal" and the only thing pointing to Neve's identity is a drawing of the sun (which makes no sense in Ezio's mind). He also describes the animal's markings as a complicated design of swirls, and its mask akin to wings-- which is not quite right, according to Ezio's memory. Ezio recalls completely that there were no 'wings' on Neve's face when he viewed the dog, just simple lines around its cheeks and eyes, and a circle on its forehead.

For too long, Ezio finds himself just how the Order's pet has managed to live through the centuries, assuming it's the same one that appeared to the Assassins in Masyaf. His life has been made up of the unbelievable and strange, and yet this may be the one of the most unbelievable stories he is witness to. How long has the dog lived? How long will it live? Why does it integrate with humans? What purpose does it have to appear to Altaïr and then himself? Does it choose at random, or does it have a specific reason? Just _what_ exactly is it?

When Ezio returns to Tiber Island, he attempts to interrogate the dog, but Neve only raises a hind leg and passes water all over his boots.

\----------

Ezio thinks he sees a glimpse of Neve in the Pythagorean temple as he accompanies Leonardo through it, but when he investigates, the dog is gone. Leonardo attempts to help him find the dog, but it's as if it was never there, and his mind is merely playing tricks on him.

Upon his return to his guild, his novices greet him with saddening news-- their pet has disappeared without a trace, and Ezio realizes that the animal must have indeed been there with them. It must have followed him all the way, and may have gotten stuck in the temple somehow, but returning to the Vault, Ezio sees no trace of Neve.

The guild is disappointed to hear that it is gone, but Ezio thinks that the over-large dog may not be gone forever. After all, it's appeared to Altaïr centuries ago, and if it will not reemerge in this era, then perhaps another generation of Assassins will be able to encounter it and discover for themselves the animal's true identity and just what its connection with the sun is.

It's not a tame dog, he says to himself. He wont deny that he will not be surprised if the dog has a connection to the Vaults, and Minerva and her people. It's just that he may not be the one to learn of its secrets.

\----------

Sometimes Ezio thinks he is a lucky man. After his first skirmish with the Templars of Masyaf, he finds he no longer has problems with them. Leandros' men are sure to be looking for the killer of their leader, but so far, none of them have attempted a hit on his life.

(In fact, he finds himself surprised that there hadn't been more of them chasing him, not with the huge amount of soldiers that greeted him in Masyaf. Where had they all gone to? Surely there should have been more carriages, guards and gunmen.)

Returning to Masyaf with Sofia in tow is now far easier, almost too easy.

Then he realizes that it is not luck, but that someone or something is truly watching over him.

That something is currently sitting at the feet of Altaïr's bones as he enters the former Grand Master's library, looking as if it's only been hours since he's last seen it, and not several years ago. It looks like it's been waiting for him, and he will not be surprised if it has. How it has managed to enter without keys though, he'll never know. Neve has never revealed any secrets, and he doubts that the old, old creature will start to do so now.

" _Salve, bella_ ," he greets his old friend as he rubs it between its furry ears. " _Come stai?_ "

Neve responds with a smile, and greets him by chewing on the hem of his robes in its own version of " _sto bene_ ". But before he can greet it properly, the beast slinks away towards the door, as if to give Ezio time with the man who's written about it and so much more in his codex pages.

Ezio cant help but think that it's just said goodbye.


	3. Desmond

Desmond has seen through the eyes of his ancestors, and he cant help but think he's next.

The first time it appeared in Ezio's memories, everyone disregarded it as a stray, but later, within Tiber Island, they know that it's not just some dog. Desmond has a theory that it's one of Those Who Came Before, like Minerva, and the others don't disagree with him, but which one is it? Shaun dubs it Fenrir for documentation purposes and casual conversation should the wolf come up in the current subject, but Desmond thinks it doesn't fit.

_First seen briefly with Ezio in Monterrigioni, this wolf can initially be dismissed as unimportant to absolutely anything ever. However, several years later, it makes a reappearance within Tiber Island, entertaining a group of novices and subsequently making a niche for itself amongst the Assassins of Rome._

_While at first it seems like someone's overfed runaway pet, certain details suggest it's anything but. For one, the average life span of a large dog or a wolf is eight years, whereas Fenrir has lived for over two decades despite living in the wild. Impressive._

_If what Leonardo said was true, then from the codex pages of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who has claimed to have met Fenrir as well, it will have been nearly three hundred by the time it meets Ezio Auditore. At this rate, it may live a little longer, so someone probably needs to keep an eye on the animal pounds for a vegetarian dog._

_Its real name is unknown, known aliases are Neve and Fenrir._

It pretty much sums up just what they've managed to get on the thing so far, aside from the funny changes within Eagle Vision and the sun connection. Pulling in what he remembers from Ezio's conversation with Minerva and Subject 16's sun-related glyph entries, the solar flares around going to do something like cook the planet again, and somehow, like Desmond, Fenrir or Neve or Poochie is in the middle of all this.

Just _how_ is the big question.

He cant ask it, not when it's obviously not capable of human speech, and that's a damn shame when he's staring right at it.

The wolf looks every bit as huge and gorgeous as the Animus makes it out to be, and it looks like it hasn't changed at all, despite over four hundred years between Ezio and himself, and nearly nine hundred since Altaïr's time.

Desmond is in the presence of a literal immortal, and all he can think of is _holy shit that's really fluffy_.

Because it really is seriously fluffy and its coat looks well-kept, despite bits of dirt clinging to it, and he has to wonder just who's been grooming the thing, or if it's got some kind of magical fur-brushing powers to go with that immortality and ability to get through locked doors.

However, there's something that seems off about the wolf. Desmond just cant put his finger on it. Four paws? Check. Giant fluffy tail? Check. Bright gold eyes? Check.

But... oh. When he uses Eagle Vision, he sees it as clear as day. Desmond runs a hand over its head and digs his fingers gently behind its ears, massaging them. "You've had a pretty rough life, haven't you?"

The others, busy fretting about whether or not the Templars have followed the giant thing, stop and look at him.

"What was that, Desmond?"

"Look, I know you guys cant see it for yourselves, but the stuff on the dog? All those red marks and that flying, burning plate thing on its back that Ezio and Altaïr keep seeing in Eagle Vision? They're not here."

"So you're saying we're all up in a tizzy about some overweight stray that's somehow managed to wander into an old place like this and oh, potentially dragging in the bloody Templars?" Shaun snaps.

Desmond holds up his hands, both of them, causing their guest to whine in annoyance. "It's the same dog-wolf-thing, I swear it. It's still glowing white and everything-- It's really hard to explain, but I think it's like... Like... those red marks have been fading ever since Altaïr's time. Like a tank losing gas or something. You heard what Leonardo said-- Altaïr mentioned it had swirlies all over the place, but when I was Ezio, it had just a few of the stuff."

All the while, the dog is listening, and once Desmond starts making his comparisons, it nods. When Desmond mentions it losing its markings since Altaïr's time, its lips twist into an annoyed scowl, like one of the more bratty of his-- _Ezio's_ \-- novices getting called out for some shortcoming and not wanting to admit to it, and--

"Holy crap, you're really losing it."

What a pair they make. The novice-Assassin-guy losing his marbles and the immortal-wolf-thing losing its powers.

The world is fucked. So truly fucked. Fucked right up in the ass with a foot-wide, mile-long flag pole with a fucking--

The wolf gives him a wet, sloppy lick across the face and effectively silences his profanity-filled tirade before it can even take off properly, and he realizes that he's just spoken all those fucks out loud-- it's obvious from the hastily slapped-on blank expressions on the others' faces as they attempt to look everywhere but him. Him and the wolf.

Like on Tiber Island and maybe even Masyaf, the wolf becomes a pet of sorts, except this time it's more of a guard dog than anything. A protector, like it's really living up to its bright white glow.

When Rebecca reports some unmarked white van following her throughout the city, Snowball (Desmond stubbornly calls it that to piss Shaun off) disappears for hours and comes back with its tail covered in drying black paint. However, Desmond has no heart to tell it off for poofing off like that because it looks so pleased with itself that it's somehow defaced the white van and rendered it completely useless for following someone around. Well, at least he thinks it did, and certainly explains the presence of paint.

(Shaun whines about being picked to clean Fenrir's tail, and he comes back with a new shirt because apparently the other one has been rendered completely beyond the abilities of bleach by huge amounts of black gunk.)

When Shaun's not looking, but Desmond certainly is, it steals a look at the database entries on the computer, and Desmond has no doubt that it can actually _read_ the things. More than once, Snowball attempts to tap the keys, but its huge paws do little more than leave a huge mess of keysmash for Shaun to return to and go batshit over.

But Snowball seems to think that its (his? hers? they really need to check what gender this wolf is) primary role in this whole operation is to make sure that Desmond doesn't keep feeling like ass. While it tends to stay away from the Animus, it rushes to Desmond's side once he stumbles away from the chair and drags him to a corner to bury him in fur. When Desmond feels the nightmares starting up, a gigantic pillow makes itself known at his side. When Desmond needs a bit of exercise, it all but drags him out and chases him everywhere-- up and down stairs, across flat surfaces and even all over buildings.

Holy shit, Ezio wasn't tripping balls when he saw Snowball going over a wall. Poochie can _climb_. Cling to walls, vault over obstacles and scale buildings-- everything that puts all those champion dogs on the agility obstacle courses to shame.

It chases him across the rooftops and leaps off them as well.

It's a fucking Assassin dog, and Desmond even drapes his hoodie on it and pulls the hood over its head, but the white color of the cloth looks so dull compared to the pure white of its coat. He cant dress it up properly because it's bulkier than he's broad, but still. Assassin dog.

Awesome.

\----------

One day Assassin Dog gets into the archives of Desmond's recordings of Ezio's early adventures on Shaun's computer. It wakes everyone up with barks that echo against the Sanctuary's walls, and for a moment, everyone thinks they're under attack.

The dog's just making a running commentary on its findings, at its findings, and Desmond signals the others to wait and see what it will do. He's curious, and this is probably a good time to get something out of it, maybe more than what his ancestors have managed to find.

Its ears pull back and almost flatten against its head when 16's slurring voice talks about the sun and the line "fire from the heavens" flashes on the screen. It perks up again and its whole body leans forward when the clip of The Truth comes on, as if it's paying rapt attention to something it has never seen before. Its hackles and tail raise once Minerva starts speaking to Ezio, and over the course of the conversation, it punctuates Minerva's words with its high-pitched barks.

Like it's trying to add in its own input, but failing because it's just a recording of the past and not a current event.

When the hologram of Minerva disappears and the video loops, it seems to realize that as well, and its whole body slumps with a sigh in defeat. The dog picks up a pen in its mouth and jabs the space bar (well that explains how it managed to access the computer this time), causing Ezio, Minerva and the huge holographic image of the sun to stop as if playing the Freeze Game.

It's short. It's weird. The whole show was absolutely fucking nuts but Desmond thinks they've gotten _somewhere_.

"You knew Minerva, didn't you, Snowball?" he asks as he runs his fingers along the wolf's back.

He gets a human-like shrug in return as it turns to look directly at him.

"Not that much?"

A disgusted snort.

"So you didn't like those guys and didn't know them well."

A short nod.

"... You really are one of them."

No answer, just a stare, but it's now clear. The whole immortality thing. The weird powers. The intelligence. The mystery. How it gets up in his ancestors' businesses. How it just knows where to go, what to do, and how to get things done, all while keeping the attention off it for thousands and thousands of years to get to this point.

He doesn't know what its goal is, but maybe, just maybe, he doesn't need any more prodding from Snowball to find out.

He realizes that it's been leaving them little clues from the beginning (to Altaïr, to Ezio, and then to him) and that they should have found out about it a long time ago. They just never considered that "dog" could really mean "god" in this case, despite the original phrase being some kind of dumb joke on acid wrapped up in a pot leaf.

With some prodding, Shaun gets to work on making a list of deities and whatever else connected to the sun, but he reports that none of them look like Snowball. A dead end, but that doesn't mean they cant find a way around it.

\----------

Snowball disappears days before they visit the Vault in the Colosseum, and for the few seconds he has before losing himself to the darkness, Desmond hates it for not being around to save Lucy. Hates it for running away when it's most needed. Hates it for fucking around and not just being forward with things.

Hates that it's still somehow in Ezio's memories as he goes through the Animus with only 16 as his guide.

(No, that's a lie-- he just wants to know _why_ the wolf-god did what it did, and why it always has to go away when important things happen.)

When Desmond wakes up from his long, long coma in the Animus, he finds blood smeared all over his clothing. Some of the marks are smudges, others reflect a paw print. A large canine's paw print.

(The Animus' seat is red, but he's willing to bet it's been marked too.)

The others are not sure whose blood it is, but it might not the Assassin dog's. According to Shaun and Rebecca, it entered the van one night looking absolutely tired, and was more red than white despite trailing no blood around, but it's difficult to tell whether or not it sustained injuries from... wherever it had come from to make it flop all over Desmond like he was nothing but a body pillow. They also say that they were being followed by a car more than once, and that the dog jumped out of nowhere and caused each vehicle to careen off the road.

They say that it appeared with greasy, oily paw prints the first time around for Lucy's body, and that traffic around the Colosseum was congested due to a number of overturned cars suspiciously identical to each other, leaking gasoline everywhere.

They say that it hasn't appeared in days, but left a note in black paint all over the floor. Desmond can still see traces of it with Eagle Vision despite the floor having obviously been wiped clean. It's all in Japanese, but a translation is laid next to the photographs of the message, along with a printed screenshot of the codex page dedicated to the animal.

_no more power, your turn_

_天照_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My friend drew [fanart](http://images.plurk.com/qxRH-4df7my8yplf1RffFhkpBYE.jpg) and I love it.


	4. Coda

An old, old god runs through the hard, tamed ground the humans tend to call their roads, and she remembers when streets used to still be the dirt ground, cobblestones here and there.

Oh, how humanity had managed to march on, and quickly too.

She does have to admit that she runs so much faster like this though, her paws no longer having to sink just a little into the ground and having to exert just a little more effort to push off. But at the same time she misses having dirt under her paws, actual dirt from the ground, because it's not as tough and unyielding as these man-made pathways.

But she does understand that the world is different now, that humans have the need to cram as much experience and development into themselves to make up for having such short lives. And that, in the future, their concept of streets will be different, the world changing as the humans grow and evolve.

That is, if the humans' world is saved before then.

That's why an old god such as herself is working so hard to do just that. That's why she's kept watch of a certain bloodline for so many centuries. And why she's fighting for this one boy who can do what she cant, because it's a world taken by the humans from the _others_ , thus only humans, have the key to save it. After all, there's only so much that a forgotten god can do in a world where humans believe in other things, in things they can see rather than simply have _faith_. but she loves them anyway, those silly creatures and their minds and hearts and she would keep doing anything it takes to save them.

It's only when she sees the large vehicle she's looking for that she slows down, just so she wont slam into it and accidentally break it. The boy's still in there, sleeping, so she shouldn't crush him and his friends. So instead, she works on the back doors, thumping her paws so the humans will hear her and let her in. But the one who answers the door is not one of his friends, it's instead his _father_.

And she doesn't like his father, she really doesn't, for so many reasons.

Because she is a parent too.

He greets her by telling her he knows who she is, and what she wants, and he's correct, of course he is. His group is large, even if their people have been dying over the centuries, and at least one of them is bound to know who she is.

In return, she greets him by relieving herself all over his footwear, before thanking him for his hospitality by rubbing herself on his clothing, and she's pleased that those threads are at least useful for removing some of the mess on her fur. After all, she dislikes baths, and takes every opportunity to get clean in a different way.

Of course, she's not totally clean, but that's fine by her. She doesn't think her boy (because yes, he's now hers, because while everyone wants him, no one's willing to take care of him except for her) would mind at all if she left some red on his clothes while she rests for a little while.

She's not done yet, but it doesn't hurt to take a break when she feels she needs to.


End file.
